The present invention relates to a color image formation method for obtaining a high-quality color print from a photographed silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material, more specifically, the present invention relates to a color image formation method capable of obtaining a high-quality color print having excellent graininess and sharpness.
Color photographs most commonly used at present are formed by a so-called negative paper system (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cN/P systemxe2x80x9d) where a photographed color negative film is developed at a processing laboratory and the image obtained on the film is printed on a printing paper to obtain a color print. This system has succeeded in coping with the popularization of color photographs and riding on the trend toward high-sensitivity color negative film and established the position as a substantially international common processing system. Accordingly, the development and print service network is perfected and the system can afford services of easy availability to users.
At present, color negative film products having various grades of sensitivity are being supplied and almost all purposes of various camera works can be satisfied with respect to the sensitivity required. Accordingly, improvement of the image quality is now being demanded rather than the sensitivity. The image quality is decided by a large number of factors such as graininess, sharpness, gradation and color tone and of these, the graininess and sharpness are important factors for the image quality. The sensitivity and the graininess are well known to be in a contradictory relationship to each other and if one is improved, the other is deteriorated. Hitherto, importance has been laid on the achievement of high sensitivity, however, the high-sensitivity color negative film products are already fully equipped and now, demands for improvement particularly in the graininess are increasing.
With the same sensitivity, the graininess and the sharpness contradict each other and improvements thereof can hardly be achieved at the same time.
However, the graininess and the sharpness both are important factors of the image quality and improvement in one part at the sacrifice of the other part is not allowed. Accordingly, in the current NP system of obtaining a print by printing an image on a paper from a developed negative film through non-scanning area-wise exposure, optimized conditions for both the graininess and the sharpness are designed.
In recent years, a system of obtaining a digital image information from an image on a developed film and making a print therefrom has been introduced. In this system, picture processing operations for elevating the sharpness can be used, such as an operation unit for stressing the edge part of the digitized electrical image and an operation unit for selectively intensifying the contrast at the foot part (high-light portion of a print). The operation for achieving stressed edge or locally intensified contrast some or less adversely affects the graininess, and improvement in both the graininess and the sharpness cannot be realized.
Also in the case where improvement of the graininess or sharpness is attempted to achieve by the development processing, the above-described contradictory relationship between these two factors is present, and techniques capable of improving both the graininess and the sharpness have not yet been found. Worse than all, when the graininess or sharpness is improved, photographic properties such as gradation, color balance, sensitivity and staining are changed in many cases and the image quality is impaired. The above-described current NP system processing optimized in the graininess and sharpness is also optimized with respect to other photographic properties and change from this processing condition is difficult because graininess, sharpness and other properties are impaired.
Thus, despite the strong demand for elevating the total image quality by improving both the sharpness and the graininess, this has not yet been realized at present.
Under these circumstances in the conventional background art and to meet the requirements on the market, the object of the present invention is to provide a color image formation method which can achieve improvements in both the graininess and the sharpness without impairing other image quality factors and can ensure a totally improved image quality at the time of developing a color photographic light-sensitive material for camera work and obtaining therefrom a positive image such as a color print.
As a result of extensive investigations, the present inventors have found that a specific combination of the development processing with the picture processing can attain the object of the present invention, namely, the improvements in both the graininess and the sharpness which are in a contradictory relation to each other and hitherto cannot be improved at the same time. More specifically, the present inventors have found that when the development processing and the picture processing are combined on a certain condition, improvement in the sharpness by the picture processing is not accompanied by deterioration of the graininess and at the same time, changes which usually occur in using a specific development processing condition for improving the graininess, such as reduction in the sharpness, reduction in the development sensitivity and collapse of the gradation and the color balance, are not caused. The present invention has been accomplished based on this finding. The present invention is as follows.
1. A color image formation method comprising developing a photographed silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material, photoelectrically reading the image information obtained to convert it into a digital image information, and taking out the digital image information to a printer, wherein the development processing is performed under the condition satisfying at least one of the following conditions (1) to (4):
(1) the color developing agent concentration in the color developer is from 0.02 to 0.2 mol/l;
(2) the bromide ion concentration in the color developer is from 0.015 to 0.1 mol/l;
(3) the color development time is from 45 seconds to 2 minutes; and
(4) the color development temperature is from 40 to 55xc2x0 C.; and
2. The color image formation method as described in 1 above, wherein the photographed silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material is a color negative film.
3. The color image formation method as described in 1 above, wherein said development processing is performed under the condition satisfying the conditions (1) and (2), simultaneously.
4. The color image formation method as described in 1 above, wherein said development processing is performed under the condition satisfying the conditions (1), (2) and (3), simultaneously.
5. The color image formation method as described in 1 above, wherein said development processing is performed under the condition satisfying the conditions (1), (2), (3) and (4), simultaneously.
6. The color image formation method as described in 1 above, wherein said color developing agent concentration in the color developer is from 0.025 to 0.1 mol/l.
7. The color image formation method as described in 1 above, wherein said bromide ion concentration in the color developer is from 0.02 to 0.05 mol/l.
8. The color image formation method as described in 1 above, wherein said color development temperature is from 42 to 50xc2x0 C.
9. The color image formation method as described in 1 above, wherein a line CCD or an area CCD is used for photo-electrically reading the image information to convert it into a digital image information.